Can a digital society ever be ecologically sustainable?

Our society has become increasingly digitalised – we use digital technologies as an extension of ourselves – at work, for gaming, for socialising, to make our cars intelligent, to see who is at the front door.

But our demand for digital technologies has ecological impacts related to the energy required to collect, store, and process the data our devices use, the water needed to cool the data centres, the minerals needed to manufacture digital hardware, and the hazardous waste produced when we throw away old devices.

These ecological impacts are well known by policymakers, the tech industry and society at large, and actions are being taken to address them. You may have seen reports of innovations that can address the energy consumption associated with digital technologies’ energy use, or new approaches to cooling data centres that use less water. Data centres are being increasingly powered by renewable energy, while the heat they produce is being recycled to warm indoor swimming pools or buildings. In our research, we also spoke to a number of companies who are doing more to recycle digital hardware. This is all important, but it is not enough to make digital technology sustainable.

The problem with current solutions

Research shows that making digital technologies more efficient is not a solution to their ecological impact as – as we have explored in detail – it will increase their use and ultimately their energy consumption. For example, efficient computer chips and batteries make phones more performant, cheaper and affordable, but this also increases demand and use. Even if the efficiency of digital technologies has been doubling every two years over the past few decades, the energy consumption associated with the use of digital technologies has also been increasing.

Renewable energy is also not the solution because producing it is not energy free: if demand for digital technologies continues to rise, it’s unlikely that renewable energy infrastructure will be able to support both the digital sector and the energy needs in other sectors.

Recycling is a good practice, but if it is done unsafely, it can release toxic substances into the environment and affect the health of workers overseeing the recycling.

What to do?

To make digital societies ecologically sustainable, more radical solutions are needed in the way our politics interacts with the markets. Currently, digital markets are intrinsically unsustainable. For example, apps are often developed to be compatible only with the latest hardware: we constantly have to upgrade our phones, laptops and game consoles to get the latest updates. Planned obsolescence – where companies make devices to only last a certain time, or make it impossible to fix a device if only one component breaks – is another example of how tech firms want to sell and have made it hard for consumers to make ecologically conscious choices.

Alternative market approaches are possible. For example, digital industries could invest in repurposing (fixing used digital technologies for resale) as an alternative to trying to drive up sales by bringing new devices to market.

These changes will not happen spontaneously: political and regulatory incentives are required to drive the scale of change that is needed. Currently there is a ‘right to repair’ directive in Europe pushing industry to address planned obsolescence. Changes also need to happen at the societal level. As a society, we need to face up to the problem that ecological sustainability remains unachievable within a broader economic model that prioritises growth and consumption above all. Individuals can also do their bit by buying repurposed devices, and keeping hold of your devices for as long as possible. Setting boundaries to digital consumption does not mean to curb development, on the contrary it can make development more sustainable.

Federica Lucivero is an associate professor in ethics of technology at the University of Oxford. Gabrielle Samuel is a lecturer in global health and social medicine at King's College London. Learn more about their work at our Summer Showcase on 12-13 July.